The Wiz of Odds

The Finalists for Readers' Choice Poster of the Year

The Wiz is happy to present the 10 finalists for Readers' Choice Poster of the Year.

Each of these teams have survived a rugged primary to reach this point, and now it's your turn to select a winner. Voting will close on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at midnight (Eastern). You get only one vote. Repeat voters are blocked by IP address.

The finalists: Iowa State, Texas Tech, Michigan State, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, Penn State, Oklahoma, Georgia Tech, USC and Mississippi. View all of the finalists after the jump and click an image for a closer view.

Middle Tennessee

Rick Stockstill enters his fourth season as Blue Raider coach and his biggest recruiting success in the offseason was securing Tony Franklin as offensive coordinator. Franklin, who was Auburn's offensive coordinator, was fired midway through the 2008 season in what appeared to be a last-ditch effort by Tommy Tuberville to save his job. Franklin has 10 returning starters to work with and a capable replacement for quarterback Joe Craddock in Dwight Dasher. The defense has seven returning starters, so Middle Tennessee is optimistic about improving upon last season's 5-7 record. The early schedule will be challenging, with four of the first five games on the road, including visits to Clemson and Maryland, a team that is looking for revenge after the Blue Raiders scored a 24-14 upset in 2008. Check out Middle Tennessee's online interactive experience by clicking here. Thanks to Brad!

Franklin: 'All They Do Is Pray' at Auburn

Before Tommy Tuberville was ushered out of Auburn, there was Tony Franklin, the offensive coordinator who lasted less than 10 months on the job.

Franklin, now the offensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee, hasn't forgotten about his brief stay on The Plains, and some of his words won't play well in the Bible Belt.

"That's all they do is pray — and talk about praying and religion," Franklin said of the Auburn athletic department. "It's a constant thing with them, and it's just overwhelming at times. A lot of people use religion as a crutch, and I think that's the case there. Every word coming out of their mouths is something about religion, and most of it is just a joke.

"I don't want to come off as anti-religion or that I'm not a Christian, but the best people in the world — the ones who do truly great things — they just do good things for people. You don't know most of the time if they're Muslim or Christian or anything else, because they never talk about it. But it was constant with them, and it was uncomfortable sometimes. When you talk about your religion so much, it comes off as fake or phony. That's the way I think of several of those people [at Auburn] as fake."

Middle Tennessee Puts On a Show

Maryland struggled mightily to defeat Delaware in its opener, so you knew things weren't going to get any easier Saturday when the Terrapins traveled to Murfreesboro, home of the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders.

Fear the Turtle? They rolled out the welcome mat. Among the out-of-towners taking in the festivities was reader Greg, who sent in several shots of the party scene.

Middle Tennessee rolled to a 24-14 victory, yet another embarrassment for the Atlantic Coast Conference this young season.

A look at some of the scenery around Mulfreesboro.

The big buffet. Plenty of food to go around. 
Blue covered everything, from light posts to fans.

A look inside Floyd Stadium. The announced crowd was 22,605.
Several Maryland fans made the trip, including this one who had his cell phone in one hand and camera in the other.

Middle Tennessee's mascot is a blue winged horse named "Lightning."

The Terps try to get it together on the sideline.

Blue Raider fans were all smiles afterward.

Barnhouse's Bottom 25: Middle Tennessee

Legendary sportswriter Wendell Barnhouse recently left the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and is now a correspondent for Big 12 Sports.com. With 30 years experience of observing the college scene, his expertise is unmatched. In the spirit of Steve Harvey's Bottom Ten, Wendell will provide us a capsule look at college football's less fortunate, counting down the Bottom 25 teams in Division I-A football.

No. 16 Middle Tennessee
Location: Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Nickname: Blue Raiders.
Conference: Sun Belt.
Coach: Rick Stockstill, 12-13 in two seasons.
Division I-A history: 46-58 in nine seasons, .442 winning percentage.
Last bowl season: 2006.
Best record last five years: 7-6 in 2006.
Rank(ed) because: Entering the 2008 season, Middle Tennessee is lacking depth and has to play too many inexperienced players. Even in the Sun Belt Conference, that's a losing combination.
Negative number: Middle Tennessee has only 74 scholarship players, 11 under the NCAA limit for I-A programs. The program has lost scholarships because of poor Academic Progress Report numbers.
Possible victory: North Texas, Nov. 22. The Eagles are also in the Bottom 25 so this is a mega-matchup in terms of the polls. The Blue Raiders will have the home-field edge.
Biggest blowout: At Kentucky, Sept. 13. Middle Tennessee also plays at Louisville on Oct. 18. Either of these games against BCS foes could get ugly.
Is there hope?: Stockstill took the Blue Raiders to the only bowl in team history in his first season. If he can keep Middle Tennessee from sliding too much this season, the future looks brighter.

Thanks to the Helmet Project.

Middle Tennessee

Middle Tennesse, coming off a disappointing 5-7 season, has a sneaky-tough nonconference schedule, playing host to Maryland and at Kentucky, Louisville, Mississippi State and Western Kentucky. If the Blue Raiders want to make noise in the Sun Belt, they must improve a run defense that was 102nd nationally last season. Thanks to Bradley.